Raspberry Lemon Scones

It's hard to believe that just a few days ago we were sitting at the table in my friend Merrilee's kitchen in Philadelphia eating her homemade scones. After a long flight back to Oregon, my parents greeted us with a big container of fresh raspberries from their garden...I knew just what I was going to use them for!!!

This morning I tried out a new recipe using lemon zest in the scone mix...They were a huge hit served with some Jamaica Iced Tea!

Raspberry Lemon Scones with a Lemony Glaze

Scone Recipe:

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoons Sugar

5 tablespoons cold Unsalted Butter

1 cup Heavy Cream*, plus more for brushing the scones.
1 cup frozen fresh Raspberries

1 Lemon zested

*NOTE I didn't have heavy cream, so I just used 1/2 C milk and 1/2 cup sour cream

Lemony Glaze:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed and strained lemon juice

2 cups Powdered Sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter, softened

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

For the scones; sift together all the dry ingredients and zest of one lemon. Using a pastry cutter or 2 forks, blend the butter into the flour until it resembles wet crumbly sand. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream, mix just until combined making sure not to over work the dough. Fold in the raspberries, be careful not to mash or break the berries.

Press the dough out onto a floured surface forming a rectangle. Next fold up the sides to form a circle with all the berries on the inside. Next cut diagonal leaving you with 8-10 triangles. Brush the tops with a little heavy cream and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let the scones cool a little before applying the glaze.

For the glaze; sift the powdered sugar and whisk in the strained lemon juice. Whisk in the butter until smooth. Whisk again and set aside until scones are slightly cooled. Drizzle, Brush or Dunk the scones in the glaze.

Adventures in my Kitchen

This
weekend it was do or die for my Hood River apples. Several had already gone bad. I borrowed the canner from my mom and on Sunday afternoon, I began canning apple pie filling. I hadn't made this recipe for pure goodness in about 5 years or so and I was a little rusty. I had to process my second batch twice to make sure that the lids were sealed nice and tight. The syrup from my first batch didn't thicken up quite right, so I hope it will still make a good pie. I'll be more confident next year and hope to make twice as much.

Fabulous Food Friday

Caramel Apples

Ingredients:
2 packages (14oz each) caramels
1/4 cup water
8 medium apples, such as McIntosh, Gala, or Fuji
sticks for apples

In slow cooker, combine caramels and water. Cover and cook on high for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until caramels are melted, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, line a baking pan with wax paper; butter the paper. Wash and dry the apples.

Insert a stick into stem end of each apple. Reduce crockpot heat to LOW.
Note: If the caramel does happen to scorch, put it through a mesh strainer and discard any dark particles. Put the sauce into a saucepan or back into the cleaned slow cooker and keep warm while you dip the apples.

Dip apple into hot caramel; turn to coat entire surface. Holding apple above pot, scrape off excess accumulation of caramel from bottom apple. Place coated apples on prepared wax paper in pan. As you near the bottom of the pot, use a spoon to spoon hot caramel over apples. Put the pan of coated apples in the refrigerator to set thoroughly. Use caution if children are helping; the crockpot will probably be quite hot to the touch and the caramel could scald.

Makes 8 caramel apples

Fabulous Food Friday

We have blackberries growing on both sides of our road, so once a week the whole family takes a walk to pick berries. Last week I made 6 containers of blackberry jam. Today it was blackberry crisp...here is the recipe:


Blackberry Crisp
4-5 Cups Blackberries
2 T sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cup flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup coconut (or chopped nuts)

I doubled this recipe and made it in a large lasagna dish. Basically berries go into the dish first. Sprinkle the 2 T sugar on top. Then in another bowl combine the remaining dry ingredients (excepts the coconut/chopped nuts). Cut in butter until mixture resembles crumbs. Add coconut/nuts and sprinkle on top of berries. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Fabulous Food Friday

As a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I have tasted my share of yummy party food. One of my hostesses from about 6 years ago served this delicious lemon bread and I had to ask for the recipe. I have made it for Mother's Day and it is also great to serve with tea. (Katie...knowing how much you enjoy tea parties...you will love this recipe!)


Lemon Bread
1/2 c. softened butter
1 c . sugar
3 T lemon extract (you use almost the whole bottle of extract)
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 T lemon peel
Grease and flour a loaf pan. Prepare glaze (1/2 c. lemon juice and 1/2 c. sugar) Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and lemon extract until fluffy. Add eggs, stir until blended. In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add 1/3 c. dry ingredients, 1/3 c. milk until blended. Add rest of ingredients including lemon peel. Pour into pan. Bake 1 hour. Pour glaze on after removed from oven. Cool 15 minutes.

Fabulous Food Friday

Fruit Filled Crepes
1 cup Flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

Blend ingredients in a blender or combine with a mixer. Heat small skillet on medium. Melt a thin slice of butter and tilt skillet to spread butter all over pan. Next pour about 2-3 tablespoons batter onto skillet and swirl around in a circular motion until all the batter is absorbed. Heat for 1-2 minutes until surface is dry. Carefully flip and cook for another minute or until crepe is lightly browned. Repeat until all batter is used up.

Now comes the fun part. You get to fill them with all sorts of yummy fillings. Here are some of our favorites: Strawberry jam, raspberries, banana slices, caramelized bananas, whipped creme, lemon curd and blueberry pie filing. Once they are filled, roll up both sides and sprinkle with powdered sugar or top with whipped creme.

Fabulous Food Friday

Pizza Casserole
This is basically like making pizza without the crust.

Brown 1 pound ground beef (I used ground chicken)
Add oregano and garlic salt to taste. Stir in about a half jar of spaghetti sauce (I used Classico sausage and onion/green pepper) This makes it really taste like pizza!
This meaty saucy layer is then spread onto the bottom of the dish. Next layer shredded mozzarella cheese, cheddar and pepperoni however you like it on the top. Sprinkle oregano on top.
Broil casserole in a 400 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes until cheese on top is melted.


Miracle Fluff
I don't like to use artificial sweetener very much, but I really wanted to make a dessert I could enjoy on Valentine's day and this hit the spot.

1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 sm. box sugar free strawberry Jell-O (or whatever flavor you like)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, WHIPPED and chilled
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese....softened
2 teaspoons vanilla

Whip the cream, and chill. Dissolve Jell-O in the boiling water. Add the 1/2 cup cold water and stir until the Jell-O is dissolved. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla together in a bowl.
Add the Jell-O mixture, and beat for a couple of minutes. Add the chilled WHIPPED cream, and gently mix together until fluffy and well mixed. Pour into individual serving dishes, or an 8" square pan. Chill until set.

Fabulous Food Friday

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

2 c sugar
1c shortening
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
Flour

Cream sugar & shortening. Add eggs & beat well. Add milk & vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients w/1 c flour. Stir into creamed mixture. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. (about 6-7 cups) Roll dough to 1/4 in thick (or however thick you would like your cookie, but 1/4 in is a good thickness) & cut. Bake at 375 until set or edges BEGIN to turn a light golden. My oven bakes hot and took about 7 minutes.

Decorator Icing

2 boxes (or 2 lbs) powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Crisco (either regular or butter flavored. Butter will turn it off white)1/2 cup HOT water
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp vanilla (I use 2)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

Combine powdered sugar & salt in large mixer bowl. Beat on slow with wire whip attachment until smooth (no more clumps) Add crisco 1/4 cup at a time until mixed. Add hot water, beat until almost fluffy. Add vanilla & almond flavoring. Beat on high 5-10 min until volume has increased & frosting has stiffer/fluffy consistency.

Note: This is the frosting the kids used yesterday to decorate their cookies, However I didn't use this frosting for the cookies pictured above. Instead, I used Royal icing from Wilton. It comes in a container similar to white glue. Then to dress it up, I generously sprinkled food grade glitter on top (it was just like doing a craft!)

To see how I packaged these cookies all up, go to my Paper Capers blog.

Fabulous Food Friday

Pumpkin Bake
This is the pumpkin recipe shown in last weeks Fabulous Food Friday...

Once when I was recovering from surgery to blast my kidney stones a friend of mine made me this delish dish. I asked for the recipe and now I will share it with you. Don't laugh, but this is one of those quick recipes using a cake mix!

1 yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter
1 can pumpkin pie mix (not just plain pumpkin)

Blend butter and cake mix with pastry blender until small crumbs form. Knead with hands and press half in a casserole dish (or press 1/4 into 2 pie plates). Top with pumpkin pie mix, then add the remaining cake mix to the top. Bake at 375 for 1 hour. See I told you it was easy!

When I made the pumpkin bake, I used a large can of pumpkin pie mix and had about 1/2 cup left over, so I added it to the following recipe for my moist banana bread.

Alyssa's Moist Banana Bread
I made up this recipe when I was first married. A lot of the butter is replaced with applesauce which makes it moist and yummy.

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cups sugar
2 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
1 t salt
3 mashed ripe bananas
4 T applesauce
2 T butter
2 T milk
1 T vanilla
2 eggs
dash of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately, then mix everything together until combined. Add nuts if you like. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

*When I asked Zander if he wanted some banana bread he said "it wooks kind of gross, but I'll try some anyway." After tasting it, he kept asking for more!

Picture of the Day 01-16

Snow Cone

For those of you with snow, here is a "snow cone" recipe that a friend sent to me. It just kills me that we are all out of milk and I can't even try this one...if you try it, let me know how it turns out.

SNOW CREAM

12 cups of CLEAN snow (no yellow snow!)
8 TBSP. milk
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. vanilla

Mix this all together (I had to do half of it in my mixer, then add the other half--it beats down)...add more sugar & vanilla as desired to taste...also, I had to add a couple extra tablespoons of milk to make our snow creamy enough (it's real powdery snow). Add food coloring to make it pretty! Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer to set up.

Enjoy!

Fabulous Food Friday

Peppermint Hot Cocoa

For each mug you will need
2-3 tablespoons of hot cocoa
hot water
1 candy cane
whipped cream

I like to make this to use up all those candy canes we seem to have left over after Christmas. I think you can figure this one out, but just in case, here is how I put it all together.

I crush the candy cane, while still in the wrapper. I put the whole thing in a ziplock bag an crush it with a meat tenderizer/mallet. Then I add about a teaspoon to the cocoa mix, add water, whipped cream and another teaspoon of crushed peppermint on top. Yummy!

Other things that are especially yummy in hot cocoa:

Cinnamon (Mexico style) is so tasty
Hazelnut flavored creamer (instead of whipped cream)
A drop or two of almond or coconut extract (almond joy goodness)
Don't forget about mini marshmallows
Flavored instant coffee

Fabulous Food Friday

Fairy Godmother's Magic Wands

Bibity-bobity-boo! I made a batch of these magic wands for Natalie's princess party on Sunday. All you do is dip pretzle rods into melted candy (for using in candy molds) and coat with sprinkles. This would be an easy Christmas treat, just use while chocolate and coat with red and green sprinkles.

Fabulous Food Friday

Breakfast Idea
Typically in our house, when we run out of our breakfast staples (bread, eggs, milk and cereal) we have to get creative. Last weekend was one of those times. In my pantry there was just enough oatmeal to make breakfast for four, plus there were remaining misc. items I thought would go well with the oatmeal. So, I set it up like a build-your-own sundae bar and the kids loved putting toppings on their oatmeal. I even served it in dessert bowls and the kids didn't even notice there was no brown sugar! Instead we had peaches, coconut, raisins, pecans and cream.

Since Thankgiving is next Thursday I thought it would be fitting for me to include a recipe you could serve after the big meal. Here is a nice dessert that is easy to make:

Cranberry Coffee Cake
I always get lots of compliments on this one. It's a nice alternative to pumkin pie.
1/2 Cup margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 pint sour cream
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp almond extract
1 can whole-cranberry sauce
1/2 cup almond slivers

Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs, mix on medium speed. Reduce speed and add dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream. Add almond extract. Grease a 9x13 pan. Put half of the batter in the pan and spread evenly. Swirl 1/2 the can of cranberry sauce over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter to the pan. Top with remaining cranberry sauce. Sprinkle nuts on top. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Frost while warm using the following icing:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp warm water
1/4 tsp almond extract

Mix together and drizzle over cake.

Fabulous Food Friday

Here's my recipe for carmeled apples:

Take these:

Wrap them around these:
Insert these:


Bake in one of these:


and you get these:

Carmeled Apples, YUMMY!!!